What kind of turntable?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

What kind of turntable?

Hi,
I’ve got a decent setup with a Macbook Pro, Traktor Kontrol S4 and 2x KRK Rokit 8s/ 2x Behringer B1520DSP
I want to add a turntable for timecode and i was looking at the Stanton T.55 USB Belt Driven, i did some research and found out that direct drive is overall better (?).
What would you guys suggest i do ?
Please share your experiences

Thanks

2

Anything from Numark’s TT500 and up is decent IMO. My personal favourites are Stanton ST.150/STR8-150, but a Technics 1200, Numark TTX (the newer ones), Vestax PDX, or any of the “super OEM” turntables would be fine.

Belt drives aren’t great for DJing because of the lack of torque, so when you cue up the record and let it go, the lack of pulling power can lead to the record slurring as it takes a short while for the platter to reach the desired speed. You end up compensating for that by pushing the record into the mix, which isn’t a good habit to pick up. Direct drive turntables with decent enough torque won’t give you that problem, so then the choice comes down to build quality, performance and features. I favour the STR8-150s because they have a good combination of torque (loads of it in fact, haha), features and build quality.

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Thanks for the reply

I’m also looking for stuff in the price range of the Stanton T.55
And i’m not sure how to connect, let’s say the T55 to my macbook, would it be plugged into the S4 or directly into the mbp ?

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How much is the T.55 where you are? Here in the UK they’re about £150-£180, so you could get a decent second hand deck off eBay for that price. The last couple of STR8-150s (single decks) that sold on eBay went for around the £100-£110 mark which is a bargain - I’m not saying you should definitely go for one of those just cos I use them BTW, haha. That’s just an example of pricing.

You would hook the deck up to your S4. There’s some videos on YouTube that show you how to hook it up.

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Plug it into the Line/phono ports on the back of the S4.

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The T55 is €199 where i am, but how would timecode go when you just connect it to the S4 ?

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Would you guys suggest new gear or second hand Technics 1200s ?

I think that the Reloop RP 4000 or the Stanton ST-150 are pretty decent.
I was looking at some second hand Technics 1200s and found some pretty decent ones.

What would you guys do ?

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2nd hand technics every day of the week.

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the answer doesn’t change and will always be second hand technics, you can get them a lot cheaper than a pair of new high end TTs like stanton 150s. You can find a pair of technics for the price of one 150.

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Thanks guys

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Still? Have the prices come down after the initial shock of “OMFG they’re discontinued and we only have the 20 billion of them that Panasonic has made over the last 40 years to use……not to mention the fact that every Guitar Center has a stack of them that they couldn’t sell at the retail prices because the used market was already flooded………”?

'Cuz if so, I’m going to look into getting a pair of M5Gs. As much as I don’t miss them very often and love Traktor Pro, I kinda miss having a pair and being able to play my closet full of records. But I sure as f*** am not going to pay $1,000/deck for them.

Also, yeah…I second Sigma’s advice…every word of it except that I prefer Technics to Stanton if the prices are even close to the same. IMHO, the Stanton has to be a good bit cheaper to be worth it.

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yeah, technics prices are exactly the same on craigslist as they were a year or two ago. you will get people trying to sell them more with the whole ‘omg discontinued’ thing but they don’t end up selling them. At any point by me there are several pairs of 1200s for $500 and sometimes less. I sometimes see them for less and I saw one for $100 last month but it was a bit far from me or I would have grabbed it. For m5gs you will still probably pay a lot, probably could get a pair for like $800-$900 if you look and really want the 16% pitch. usually I see people asking $1000-$1100 a pair but I’m sure you can get them lower.

Personally I would rather grab a pair of m3ds or mk5s and throw a $15 LED kit on.

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And you can find a pair of second hand high end TTs like the super oem for the price of one second hand technics TT and it’ll probably be in better condition…

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Buy a used 1200 or 1210.. don’t buy a belt driven model.

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Found some good looking used ones !



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Both MK5s? Nice dude!

how much did you pay and do they have any issues?

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and haha at the zip tie on the ortofon, I did a pretty dope repair on mine that involved gluing a pen cap piece from a pilot g2 pen in with plastic weld, you can hardly tell it didn’t come like that

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Both MK5s, yes

I’m not sure if i’ll buy these, i’m still looking for a good pair, the owner of these had them in his bar and he said they’ve been only used twice and he’s willing to sell both of em for 700€ together, if i would convert it to dollars it would be 945 $

Should i buy these or keep looking ?

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Haha I can safely say by those pics that those technics have been used quite a bit for years. That doesn’t mean they are in bad shape and you shouldn’t buy them, but he’s full of it.

I’m not sure what technics prices are over there compared to in the US but typically a pair of MK2s here will go for $500. I personally wouldn’t pay more than $750 for those MK5s and I think $900 would be as a high as I go on MK5s if they were really really new looking and black, but those aren’t in new enough shape to command $950 at least in the US.

they could work great but they have been used and moved around quite a bit it looks like so don’t take his word for it and inspect them yourself